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Having a problem with the horn on my wife's '62, so I pulled the steering wheel and found the wire in the horn contact brush is broken. See picture labeled "OLD" below. I ordered a new one (picture labeled "NEW"). The old one looks to have a much wider contact area that the new one. Is my "OLD" contact brush an original? It has been in the car since we have had it, almost 23 years.
Yes, old and new. When I had to replace mine, I found the shoulder on the 'new' to be too wide and the horn didn't work right. I had to cut the collar to about 1/2 of what it as - more like the 'old'
That repro part is so, obviously, different than the original that it begs the question (once again)...why can't they reproduce new parts exactly like the old. With todays technology and machining tolerances...they should be able to do this easily .
Actually the "new" part may be an improvement. I noticed on my old part that the wider, thinner, flat end had worn a groove in the surface where it rubs on the solid ring in the steering column hub. Just wondering if this grooving contributed to the failure. Assuming that this an original part, it probably has about 130K miles on it. The solid end on the new part may wear better?? My first thought was to try repairing the old part by soldering a new copper piece on the grooved end, but I think I will try the new one when it arrives.
Horn brush problem
